Honeywell Eserver installation steps

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This post was last edited by buzouhuitoulu on 2016-5-31 08:28. Current version: eserver, 430.1; DCS server, 400.1. Installation steps for eserver: Before installation, certain hardware and software requirements must be met. The hardware configuration may vary slightly depending on the version of EServer purchased; this article focuses only on the configuration and installation of virtual machines installed on physical servers. (Experience shows that on physically configured machines, software installation is faster compared to virtual machines. ) Host machine: OptiPlex 9020, 8GB RAM Operating system: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS Virtual machine: VMware Workstation 10.0.0 Operating system: Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard 64-bit OS The virtual machine must have an English-language operating system; this is a basic requirement for Honey Software. The virtual machine memory can be adjusted flexibly according to actual conditions. The effective storage space of each virtual hard disk must be no less than 80G. Note: After installing the operating system on the virtual machine, create a backup, as issues that prevent further installation may occur from time to time when installing the eServer software. Additionally, the snapshot feature cannot restore to a clean virtual operating system. This article applies only to a single ES server and a single DCS data server. The redundant DCS servers have not been configured. The computer-related settings mentioned in the following text refer to virtual machines, unless otherwise specified as physical machines. After establishing the above basic conditions, proceed with the installation steps for the eserver software. 1. Create login accounts and passwords for the computer, and set control permissions. For example, create a new account: experionadmin, with password: xxxxxx. • Try not to use Windows’ built-in administrator account to log in and install the eServer software. Path: Strat\ Control Pane\User Accounts\Manage Another Account\Creation a new Account 2. Change the computer username. For example: Eserver. (Since the name of the computer used for this installation is eserver, it is recommended to use a different name for the computer to avoid confusion with the keyword eserver.) ) • Ensure the uniqueness of computer usernames across the entire project control system LAN. • If the username is not redundant, the last letter cannot be A or B; A and B are reserved in Honeywell’s system for redundant devices. • During this installation process, eserver is used as the new computer name. In subsequent configurations, eserver serves as a keyword for certain programs; therefore, it is advisable to avoid using this keyword as the computer username. Path: Right-click on My Computer\Properties\Change Settings\Computer Name\Change\Computer Name. 3. Modify the hosts file. Use the Notepad application to open the hosts file. The Hosts file needs to include both the IP addresses and computer names of the eserver and DCS server ； The hosts file needs to be modified on both the eServer and DCS server. Path: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts Note: Sometimes the hosts file cannot be saved after modifications; it is necessary to save it as a file with a .dll extension, and then replace the original hosts file in this path. After modifying the hosts file, the computer must be restarted; otherwise, the changes to the hosts file will not take effect. 4. After completing the above preparatory work, install the eserver software using the installation disk provided by Honey. • Since Honey’s software has high requirements regarding purity, try not to install any software other than the operating system before installing it. • Since it is a virtual environment, the installation files remain at the default path. a. Between \"continue migration\" and \"install clean\", select \"install clean\" to create a new one ； b. Select it in the setup type of node section; choose eserver. c. Enter the corresponding license account in User And Licence Information – one of the documents provided by the supplier contains the authorization for Eserver. 5. During the installation process, it is crucial to set a password for the account below. When using the Control Builder software on Eserver and DCS Server, internal communication and data access are carried out through various accounts and passwords; among these, the password for the MNGR account is of critical importance, as this account is related to the configuration of subsequent accounts as well as the setup of the servers. The password for this MNGR account must be the same as that of the MNGR account corresponding to the DCS EPKS server. So far, no tool has been found to modify the password of the mngr account. There are rumors online that Honey comes with a tool for changing the password of the mngr account; it’s not clear whether the person who posted that information is referring to the password of this mngr account or the one for the mngr account within the station – this needs to be verified. The passwords for other accounts such as Local Com Server and Experion SQL should remain the same as those for MNGR. After clicking Next once, a Warning window will appear, requesting that a complex password be set; this can be ignored as it does not affect the subsequent installation or normal use of the software. 6. The passwords for the accounts on the following pages have not been used to log in to the system; this has no impact on establishing communication. It is sufficient to keep them the same as those from the previous step. It should be noted that after the software is installed, a prompt will appear asking for a password when logging into Windows as an administrator; if login is not possible using the password set here, it means that no passwords were assigned to the Standard Access users in this step. 7. Next is the automatic installation of the system; there are approximately 54 installation packages, and this process takes a little over 2 hours. 1) The OS preparation step takes a relatively long time to complete; sometimes, additional waiting is required before proceeding further. If the waiting time exceeds the installation time for this step (estimated time and duration are indicated on the right side of this page). ), a basic installation failure can be considered. 2) When reaching step 17, it is necessary to replace the disc for the SQL Server component; these two steps also take a long time, and installation failure messages may appear during them as well. Note: If the program fails to install on the local machine, then it will also fail to install within the virtual machine operating system on that local machine; in such a case, consider using another computer. Some of the installation steps involve reasons that are difficult to trace, and they are time-consuming; there’s no need to focus too much on them. During installation, the system will keep restarting; no other action is required apart from changing the installation disk. 8. Proceed step by step and wait for the installation to complete. After the installation is complete, log in to Windows using the Experionadmin account. In the computer’s Control Panel, change the region to China, as shown in the figure below. 9. Click the Server Manager icon next to Start: a corresponding window will appear; add the production administrator account to the \"Members of\" field in the Windows user properties window. Path: Server Manager \ Configuration \ Local Users and Groups \ Users \ Members. Note: This step is very important; otherwise, it will be impossible to proceed with the subsequent tasks. 10. Configure eserver access rights: Under Strat\ all programs\ Honeywell Experion PKS, create shortcuts to configuration studio and eserver standard access configuration and place them on the desktop. Under Strat\ all programs\ Honeywell Experion PKS\Server, create shortcuts to Station, HMIWeb display builder, Experion PKS Server, etc., and place them on the desktop for future use. Double-click to open Configuration Studio. In the connection window that appears, under Experion PKS System, select the server corresponding to Eserver as indicated by the prompts, then click Connection to proceed with server configuration. In the newly popped-up window: User Name: mngr; Password: the password created for mngr in Step 5; Domain: the computer name changed in Step 2. If an incorrect User Name is entered along with the correct User Name and an incorrect password, a prompt will appear. If the User Name entered is “Mngr” and the correct password created in Step 5 is used, another prompt will appear. This is due to restrictions on operational permissions; either Step 9 was not carried out, or Step 9 involved adding product administration privileges without restarting the computer. Note: There are two minor points to note here: 1) How to modify the complexity requirements for Windows login user passwords. 2) How to verify the correctness of the password set for the mgr account (the password for the mgr account is tested by removing Local Servers). Since these two features do not affect normal operations, you may give them a try if you’re interested, as shown in the image below. 11. Establish a DSA data server. Enter the configuration explorer interface through step 10. At this time, since no connection has been established with the DCS server, the connect window only shows servers related to the eserver. Enter the connect page via system name, and proceed to the server configuration screen using step 10. In the first column on the right, “Server Tasks”, click “Add a server to this system”. On the opened page, in the “Main” section: For the “Alias” field, fill it in as appropriate; you may also leave it at its default value ； Check the Non-Publishing Server option ； Node Name option: Enter the name of the computer that serves as the eserver; since the computer used for this installation is named eserver, it is recommended to change its name to something else in step 2, in order to avoid confusion with the keyword eserver. ) Repeat the above steps to set up the DCS server. On the page that opens, in the main bar: for the Alias field, fill it in as appropriate or you can keep the default value ； Check the Server External To System option ； Node Name option: Enter the name of the DCS server computer, HHBserver. After clicking OK, click the second option in the Server Tasks bar, Load system configuration to servers, to install the configuration on the two servers that have been created. 12. Configure assets. Under the Server Tasks section from the previous step, there is a option called System Tasks; click on the first item under System Tasks, which is \"Configure assets for this system\". In the dialog box that appears, right-click in the assets directory and create an asset named LNG_PLANT. Then right-click or use the download button in the menu bar to download the created assets. Close, exit. Then, within System Tasks and further down under Network Tasks, click on Load network configuration to servers to download the established data network. 13. At this point, only the configuration preparation on the eserver side has been completed. Ultimately, to establish a complete control system, it is also necessary to set up the DCS server and data servers, as well as establish communication links. 14. Establishing the hardware communication architecture: Before proceeding with the following tasks, it is first necessary to set up a communication system, and there are 3 options available. • On a virtual machine platform, an Eserver virtual machine and a DCS virtual machine are started separately on a local machine. • Direct network cable connection: Connect the two computers, each equipped with an Eserver and a DCS server, directly using a network cable. • Switch connection: Connect the two computers, each equipped with an Eserver and a DCS server, using a switch. 15. Complete the hardware communication configuration by setting the IP addresses and mask addresses. Based on the IP addresses in the hosts file from Step 3, it is necessary to set the IP addresses and mask addresses for both the DCS server and the Eserver. After completing the hardware configuration of the eserver and DCS server, the hardware communication architecture is established. 16. DCS server configuration work. Go to the DCS server and open the Configuration Studio software. At this point, in the Connect window of DCS Configuration Studio, the eserver servers that were created on the Eserver server earlier can be seen: SERVER_104 and SERVER_107. By clicking on the properties button in the lower left corner, it can be determined that 104 is an eserver server, while 107 is a DCS server, which corresponds to the SVR server shown in the diagram. Click to access the DCS server. Note: The following interface may vary slightly in the Control Builder versions for R430 and R400. Clicking on the properties icon at the lower-left corner of the window allows you to view the relevant properties of the selected server. 17. Configure the DCS Server-related parameters in the DCS server. After entering the configuration explorer interface of the DCS server, as shown in the figure below: In the SVR expansion list, click on the distributed servers icon; in the status bar on the right, click to open the Configure DSA window. In the newly opened DSA Servers window, it can be seen that the DSA server is already included in the expanded list on the left, with SERVER_104 and SVR appearing in the sub-lists. Click on DSA Servers; in the right-hand window, under Server Tasks, click on “Load system configuration to servers” to load the DSA servers into the system. 18. Return to the DCS server Configuration Explorer interface, as shown below: In the SVR dropdown list, click the Enterprise Model icon; in the status bar on the right, click the Build Assets icon. In the newly opened Assets window, configure the assets by dragging the points on the right into the associated points window in the middle. 19. Configure the Eserver in the DCS server. On the DCS server, return to Configuration Studio, click Connect to switch to the EServer, enter the manager account name and password, and repeat steps 17 and 18. 20. After the communication architecture is set up for the Eserver, upon opening Control Builder, the system architecture of the DCS server as well as its server name can be seen in the pop-up window. As shown in the figure below: 21. Up to this point, the communication configuration on both the DCS server and the eserver has been completed, and data communication has been established to a large extent. Next, the effectiveness of this communication will be demonstrated using the station software. 22. Copy the HMI screen configured on the DCS server—the tag detail screen under the R430 file—to the corresponding path on the Eserver. HMI path: C:\ProgramData\Honeywell\Experion PKS\Client\Abstract; R430 path: C:\Program Files\Honeywell\Experion PKS\Client\System\R430. 23. Double-click to open the station, as shown in the icon below. Click configure\system hardware\distributed server in the status bar; at the same time, switch the operator account to the manager account in the lower right corner. Under system name on the right side, you will see the Eserver and DCS server listed in order. Click on the DCS server to access the configuration page; under Configuration, select \"Alarms and Data Subscriptions\" and set it to \"Enable Data Only\". In the Status section, the status indicator in the \"Communication Status\" category will turn green once this is done. 24. Observation results. In the Command menu of the top toolbar in the Station software, enter the name of the flowchart screen and press Enter; the flowchart screen will then appear in the Station software. It will be updated in real time as the data on the DCS server changes. Note: If the current permissions are set to “oper”, clicking on an I/O point on the screen will not bring up the faceplate for that I/O point. However, if the permissions are set to “mngr”, the faceplate will be displayed. With the above steps, data communication between the DCS and Eserver data servers over a local network via FTE has been established. Next, a third computer is used to enable data access between different networks through Ethernet, thereby realizing the standard access and premium access functions. 25. Double-click on the desktop to open the Eserver Standard Access Configuration program; the interface is as follows – simply copy the URL address from the URL dialog box. Before copying, if the third computer and the Eserver are on the same network segment: enter the address from the URL bar into the IE browser’s address bar on the third computer, then press Enter to access the standard interface. If the third computer and the Eserver are not on the same local network: Change the IP address of the third computer in place of “eserver” after “http://” in the URL field. Then, close and reopen it to check whether the modification was successful. Then, enter the address from the URL bar into the IE browser’s address bar on the third computer and press Enter to access the standard screen. 26. LAN access via Standard Access: Use the IE browser on a third computer to log in remotely to eserver. Select the appropriate version of IE according to eserver’s system requirements, open the IE browser, enter the address from Step 25 in the URL field of IE, and confirm. Click on “click here for the standard access home page” to access the Standard Access homepage; the page can be accessed in two ways as follows. 1. After clicking “click here for the standard access home page”, it can be seen that the address in the IE browser changes to http://eserver/eServer/PageLoader.asp?page=StandardAccessHome. Replace the text in yellow with the name of any flowchart located in the Eserver server’s Abstract folder, then press Enter; for example: 0010_ESD. 2. The StandardAccessHome.htm file, which is located at the path C:\Program Files\Honeywell\Experion PKS\Client\System\R430\eServer, can be opened using the HMI Web software. Buttons can be added, along with names for the screens to be accessed; links can be created by using buttons related to the standard access screens. Note: Under normal circumstances, the IE browser can successfully access the Standard Access Home page, and this has little to do with the version compatibility of the IE browser. If you cannot log in properly, click Start \ Computer Management to open the Computer Management window. In the sub-menu Service and Applications\Services under Computer Management, check whether the WWAN AutoConfig service is stopped; if it is, start it. If you still cannot log in, consider switching to a suitable version of the IE browser. 27. Preparation for LAN access with Premium Access: Before accessing, it is necessary to configure permissions and make some preparations for Premium Access. Return to the station program, click Configure\Operators\Operators to open the following screen ； Also, remember to change the account in the lower right corner from \"oper\" to \"mgr.\" On the newly opened page, under the \"General\" section, select \"Traditional Operator\" in the type dropdown menu, enter the account username as required, and click the \"Change Password\" button to set a login password for this account. (This account and password have the same attributes as those of a manager account; the account name and password can only be changed using specialized software.) ) Unlike standard access, premium access has poor compatibility with various versions of the IE browser; in other words, it has strict requirements regarding the version of IE. For this installation, premium access can only be accessed using IE8 on Windows 7 32/64-bit operating systems, while browsers newer than IE8 cannot be used (IE9 and IE11 were tested). 28. LAN access for Premium Access. In step 25, before clicking “click here for the premium access home page”, it is necessary to install two plugins first: • Premium Access Components • Server Client Components. You can simply click to download and install them. Then click on “Click here for the premium access home page” to proceed. A dialog box will appear asking for the account name and password; enter the account name and password from step 23 to log in, and click OK. There will be a slight delay after logging in, after which the standard premium access interface will appear. If the values displayed in the “System Sinewave” option on the right side of this interface, as well as the date and time shown in “EServer Data/Time”, are updated approximately every 5 seconds, it indicates that the login was successful. Similar to the Standard Access method 2, open the StandardAccessHome.htm file located at the path C:\Program Files\Honeywell\Experion PKS\Client\System\R430\eServer using the HMI Web software, add buttons, and specify the names of the screens to be accessed; links can then be created using the buttons on the premium standard screen. Notes: 1. The access method for Premium Access is different from that of Standard Access. Standard Access captures static images in a manner similar to snapshots, whereas Premium Access involves using the station software installed on the eserver to retrieve images; however, access restrictions are in place, allowing only specific data access functions, as detailed in the table below. Display Types: eServer Rotary Station, Standard Access, Premium Access, Custom Displays √ √ √ Trends √ √ Reports √ √ Alarms and Events √ System displays, detail displays, group displays, etc. √ Display Features: eServer Rotary Station, Standard Access, Premium Access – Hyperlinks – Buttons with hyperlinks √ √ √ Automatic page refresh √ √ Display dynamics √ √ Manipulating point data √ 2. For Premium Access, if linking does not work properly, it is necessary to modify the Internet Options\Advanced\Browsing settings in the IE browser by checking the Enable Third-Party Browser Extensions* option. 3. Add trusted sites by adding the URL address from step 25 to the list of trusted sites; this can be used to determine whether a URL belongs to a trusted site. 4. Manage Add-On plugins. Sometimes, the Premium Access features cannot be loaded because the Premium Access Components and Server Client Components installed in step 28 are not activated. You can go to the settings on the website, select the Manage Add-On option, to activate these plugins. 29. Ethernet access for Standard Access and Premium Access: Based on the TCP/IP communication protocol, the port mapping address for Standard Access through the firewall/router is port 80 ； According to the TCP/IP communication protocol, the port mapping address for Premium Access through the firewall/router is port 50000 ； After configuring the router or firewall properly, the Standard Access function allows normal access from the third PC before making the following changes. To enable Ethernet access for Premium Access, it is necessary to enter the Ethernet gateway address of the third PC along with the name of the Eserver computer into the hosts file of that third PC; this will allow Ethernet access for Premium Access. Note: The Eserver must have a gateway configured; otherwise, communication will not be possible. In the text, some steps, such as whether a restart is necessary after modifying the hosts file, are a matter of opinion. Automatic control instruments